Sarah Palin recently told a Florida audience that we should be a “...force for good..”. Wow, a 'force for good'. Imagine that. Did this forceful approach work with any of your kids? How about your neighbors? Your in-laws? Saddle up the Christian crusaders and ride into Jerusalem, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and any place that is 'bad' and undemocratic. Force them to be good.
Personally, I do not believe the 'force for good' metaphor offers hope to most Americans or to the world. I do so hope that Palin was using the term metaphorically. I believe that my country was and can be again a shining beacon of hope for the oppressed of the world. We can can be again looked to for examples of democracy in action. We can be again looked to as the place that says:
give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free
rather than surrender and accept democracy or else. We can do this by talking to our enemies. We can do this by building schools that teach the three RRR's and honest history; history that is not centered on one religion or another.
Get off it Republicans, selling democracy to the rest of the world has to be by example, not at the point of a sword. Force is bad. Discussion and example are good. Discussion and example are and always have been the only real 'force for good' in the world
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